Cash for Christmas Gift: Rude or Thoughtful Gift Idea?

Inside: Is it rude to give cash for Christmas? Learn how to give cash for Christmas so it feels fun and thoughtful, with two of my favorite ways to wrap it.

Is Giving Cash for Christmas Rude?

Growing up, my grandma gave us a greeting card for our birthdays and Christmas.

We knew cash was inside.

We were excited about it because we wanted the cash.

We never felt like our grandma didn't care about us because we got cash.

But some people do feel like giving cash is rude.

To them, cash looks:

• lazy
• thoughtless
• like you ran out of time to buy a gift

So is it rude? It comes down to interpretation.

Present cash in a fun way, and people laugh. Watching them open it makes giving even more rewarding for you.

If someone sees your gift as rude, I'll share how to prevent that.

What Makes a Cash Gift Feel Thoughtful?

It Comes Down to Interpretation

Two people can open the same card with the same cash and react completely differently.

That comes down to interpretation.

In NLP, the communication model explains why.

Something happens outside of you. That's the external event, like opening a card with cash inside.

You take it in through your five senses.

Then it runs through your filters, based on your beliefs, values, decisions, and more.

Those filters delete, distort, and generalize the information:

• Delete: you pay attention to some parts of the experience and skip others.
• Distort: you bend what you experience to fit what you already know.
• Generalize: you draw conclusions from a few experiences.

What's left is your map of the event. The meaning you give it is your interpretation.

One person opens the card and feels excited. Another sees it as lazy.

You can't determine what someone's interpretation of your gift will be.

You can make your best guess, based on:

• your experience with them
• your knowledge of them
• how they've reacted to things in the past

The key thing is to ask yourself:

• Is this gift appropriate for this person?
• What indicators have they given me that they'd really like this?

Really unsure? You can always have a conversation with them. Ask how they feel about receiving cash or giving cash as a gift.

They'll tell you.

Then set your intention for giving the gift. Set it with your highest and purest intention.

How to Give Cash for Christmas So They Love It

1. Watch how they react to cash versus gifts.
2. Decide what they value: a chosen item or the cash.
3. Pick a presentation that fits their personality and interests.
4. Wrap the cash so it's fun to open.

With your intention set, here's what cash brings to the table.

What's the Benefit of Cash Gifts?

Cash gives the true value of its face value.

Say someone gives you a gift that costs $500 in the store. Maybe they:

• won it in a raffle
• regifted it
• got it on clearance for $200

Would you rather have the item valued at $500? Or the cash in hand?

Know Who You're Giving To

Some people value the thoughtfulness of an item chosen and gift wrapped for them. Others value the cash.

Watch someone over several gifting holidays, like Christmas and birthdays. You'll see how they react when they open cash versus gifts.

My daughter loves a thoughtful gift. Something that shows you were paying attention when she said she wanted it. Usually something she wouldn't buy for herself.

When I can't find a gift like that, I give her cash. Maybe the gift is:

• too expensive
• too hard to get
• 3 months away with shipping
• limited edition

She still values the cash. She pays bills with it or puts it toward a trip.

Make Opening It Fun

One way around the idea that cash is thoughtless: wrap and present it so it's fun and thoughtful.

People:

• fold cash into origami shapes
• roll it up and put it inside balloons

That takes thoughtfulness. Some hard work. And handiness.

Need more ideas? Check out these 120 creative ways to give money, my original 12 gift card ideas, and these funny money gifts for teens.

Make It About Them

Show them you think about them.

Say they're into anime. Work anime into how you wrap their cash, and the gift becomes unique and more impactful.

Keep it simple:

• a handmade card
• a card themed for their favorite anime
• just the words or a quote they'd recognize

It doesn't even have to be a drawing.

2 Thoughtful Cash Gift Ideas

The Balloon Box

My video of this one has gone viral a few times over.

1. Get the biggest box you can find, like a refrigerator box or a box an appliance came in. Hardware stores usually throw these away in the back of the store, especially after Thanksgiving during the big appliance sales.
2. Get a bunch of regular balloons you blow up yourself.
3. Roll up the cash. Put one bill in a balloon.
4. Fill the rest of the box with the other balloons. Giving three $50 bills? Three balloons each get a $50 bill. A refrigerator box might hold 30 balloons, and only three have cash.
5. Put a rock or something in the box so something moves when they shake it.
6. Wrap up the box like a regular gift.

They pop the balloons to get the cash.

The Cookie Tin Switcheroo

You know those tins of Danish cookies your grandma keeps sewing supplies in after she eats all the cookies? Disguise cash as one.

1. Get a cookie tin from the dollar store.
2. Throw out the cookies.
3. Put the cash in the bottom of the empty tin.
4. Make a fake sewing kit with a false top and a tag for them to pull. Set it on top of the cash.
5. Close the lid.

Now it's a couple switcheroo:

• They think they got cookies.
• They open it and find a fake sewing kit. They laugh.
• They pull up the sewing kit and find the cash.

I did this for my son-in-law one Christmas. He laughed a lot, which made giving this gift even more rewarding for me. Watch the cookie tin video on TikTok.

What If Your Cash Gift Falls Flat?

They're Stoic

Know their personality.

If they're kind of stoic and boring, they're probably not going to react to a cash gift you spent time wrapping creatively.

They Criticize Every Gift

I had a family member who would always find something wrong with whatever I gave them.

On one extreme is the person who appreciates whatever gift you give.

On the other is the person who criticizes whatever gift you give.

Being real with my NLP coach hat on, the larger question is:

• For what purpose are you giving this person a gift?
• For what purpose are they even in your life?

If they're going to be critical of a gift, you may have a larger issue than how to make giving cash more exciting.

Want More Ways to Make Them Laugh When They Open Their Cash?

My funny money gifts for teens post has 13 punny ideas, like:

• “All About the Benjamins”: cash rolled up inside a roll of toilet paper. My 13-year-old nephew fell out laughing.
• “Yo Dawg, I Heard You Like Bread”: cash hidden in a loaf of bread, with a printable Xzibit meme taped to the front. My 20-year-old nephew was genuinely surprised to find a $100 bill inside, and he peeled off the printable to keep on his wall.

Pick your favorite and make this the year your cash gift gets the best reaction ever.